St Ladislaus Memorial on Pogány-havas – Csíkszépvíz
Above Csíkszépvíz, on the lower slope of Kicsi-Pogány-havas, the ruins of a chapel forgotten for centuries preserve the memory of St Ladislaus. Today a bell tower stands beside them, and on the knight-king's feast day the village's pilgrimage leads here.
The chapel already appears on Visconti's map of 1699, and in Balázs Orbán's time both the ruins and the stone with a hoofprint beside them were known. In 2007 archaeologist István Botár found the ruins with the help of elderly locals; the 2010 excavation uncovered the foundations of a 6.6 × 5.2-metre chapel, partly built into the rock and probably dating from the 17th century. On 27 June 2011, Mass was celebrated here for the first time in about a hundred years.
The ruins were not rebuilt: on the experts' advice a bell tower was erected beside them, which Archbishop György Jakubinyi blessed together with the new bell and the restored foundation walls on St Ladislaus Day in 2012. The bell tower was designed by Ernő Bogos and built by carpenter Gergely Balla.
According to legend, after defeating the Cumans St Ladislaus rode his horse into the stream and said: “Drink, my horse, for this is fair water” – hence the name of the village. Beside the old path, tradition shows a stone bearing the hoofprint of Ladislaus's horse and a spring called St Ladislaus's Well.
On 27 June the faithful of Csíkszépvíz and processions from neighbouring villages make a pilgrimage to the memorial site; the feast of the parish church dedicated to St Ladislaus is held on the nearest Sunday.
Visiting: the memorial site can only be reached on foot. The 8.5-km “Springs over hill and dale” educational trail starts in the village centre and leads past the memorial site to Fügés-tető; allow a few hours for the hike.
About the pilgrimage on 27 June: St Ladislaus Day Pilgrimage – Pogány-havas, Csíkszépvíz
More about the cult of St Ladislaus: Faith set in stone – The fortified churches and frescoes of Szeklerland
Photo: Dénes Daczó / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
Town:
Csíkszépvíz (Frumoasa)